My Dear Mr. James,

Friday, May 23, 2014

freshly made rice bread with bits of nuts and all sorts of deliciousness

from our neighbors the sims

XXX

Monday, April 21, 2014

easter parade and bonnet festival new york

new york easter parade bonnet festival 5th Avenue New York

click photo to open album of photos from the festival

nice weather and fab people and all that.

XXX

Monday, April 07, 2014

addicted to gadgets and technology - my latest series in alamy

same guy from the previous post. this is just a play on how in the old times men carried their cigarette packs folded in their t-shirt sleeves. rebel-bad-boy sort of stuff - and also wearing one's addiction on one's sleeve - only this time it's addiction to gadgets and technology. i submitted this concept to stocksy, but the editor said he didn't get the context, so i did a reshoot of the same thing and submitted it to alamy. it's part of my latest series there.

image above is part of the series.

XXX

Friday, April 04, 2014

i hate this model

because he wore my clothes better. there.

i do love tho that i didn't have to source clothes for him to wear (we wear the same size, all my stuff is fair game) and that he was a real trouper during the shoot. stocksy said it wanted some sartorialist-style street fashion photo, so there.

vintage pirate coat from vivienne westwood (this one is charles'), suede chukkah boots from a.p.c., iggy jeans from agnes b., hooded sweater from diesel (which the model smirked at, comparing the style of the hoodie to foreskin) and hat from dior homme.

XXX

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

romantic ideas

http://www.stocksy.com/attator/shoot/7797

remember when i said the people from stocksy sometimes suggest what to shoot? i was gonna do a gay-themed series of photos, but there wasn't necessarily an inspiration board for this, so i thought, why not just do the moodboard for couples? here's what the editors of stocksy think are good couple photos. great, right? i thought, those are mostly young (except for one) white (except for one) hetero (except for two?) couples. what if just try to recreate those moments, but with a gay black couple? (photo above, they're models of course, and may or may not be gay in real life). i was curious to see if they'll be perceived to be just as romantic (not at all? even more so?).

http://www.stocksy.com/attator/shoot/7812

but then there were just so many hours in a session and i ran out of steam, so i continued the next day with another pair of models (photo above).

the results, plus a lot of variations (i tend to veer off path when shooting), are in this gallery (first day) and this gallery (second day). they're not all there yet as i'm still going through the photos and might actually do a third day of shoot for the set-ups that i missed, but they'll end up in those galleries.

this, for example, is a lame attempt at "a touch to the lips" - i should've gone closer, over the shoulder of the guy touching the other, more intimate - ah well. and this, which i like, is a combination of "love at every age" and "roof".

XXX

Friday, March 14, 2014

more directions

in another post i mentioned about how i directed the models on what to do, and last weekend i joined a group shoot where another photographer said i'm actually good at it, so i thought, how about i share more on what i tell the models before clicking the shutter?

in the photo shown above, i told the taller model to dry his hands (we were doing dishwashing photos before this), the other model to help him remove his apron, while asking his opinion about something important that he has to decide on but doesn't know what to do about.

this is part of an lgbt series of photos that i'm doing for stocksy.

XXX

Friday, January 31, 2014

meet meynard

Thursday, January 30, 2014

don't you just love it when they get it?

all i said was, you're these bored party people, spoiled brats - they came up with this, from a shoot i did last sunday. in the photo are diego, michelle, mitchel, and hallie.

photo stuff update: i guess sales are picking up (and i hope it continues) - bme (best month ever, if you're not familiar with stock photographers' sales talk) for alamy, stocksy, and imagebrief.(well, considering this is my first month) and tho not bme for pond5, still not bad.

XXX

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

first rm sale via alamy

i've had several rf sales from alamy before, but this was the surprise first rm sale. good timing i guess, since i've just uploaded some new stuff there.

photo above was taken in bagan, myanmar (formerly burma), on a lovely hot air balloon ride at sunrise.

XXX

correction: oops. i did a double check and turns out it was rf (royalty-free) after all. i was confused because the sale was for an amount that another agency used to charge for rm (royalty managed). ah well.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

my mother's crew of sewing women on a website's splash page

above is a photo of the women sewing doormats in the hut next to our family house in the philippines. it's currently used by a company in their website. my mother's the one standing at the back, taking a break from making their lunch to be in the photo.

XXX

Monday, December 30, 2013

first sale @ imagebrief

just got my first (hopefully not the last) image licensed at imagebrief. it's basically a company that caters to specific requirements of companies needing images by sourcing them directly from photographers worldwide. the big draw? they take out the smallest commission in the industry.

the image that got licensed was from the shoot pictured above (tho not this specific image) with scotty, anton, and jordy - taken in maplewood.

XXX

Friday, December 27, 2013

and it just started snowing

maybe they were just happy that the shoot was over, but they all seemed in their most relaxed in this last photo i took of them, taken at the front stoop of the building where i live. i've finally processed and submitted all the images from the series, all for stocksy , including the ones taken in their apartment.

was supposed to do another shoot yesterday, but model said he slipped and injured himself, so i guess that'll have to wait until next week.

XXX

Monday, December 23, 2013

stock imitating life imitating stock

on top is a photo from a recent shoot in the east village in new york for stocksy, inspired by the photo below it, taken spring of 2009 in the peak district in the uk (taken to look like a stock photo) with friends, in a really, really old cottage we rented for the weekend.

XXX

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

blue potato and chinese sausage getting sauteed in olive oil and thyme before joining chickpeas and leek soup

we thought the blue potatoes were really pretty (we bought it at the jesus market), and we've had these chinese sausages in the fridge for a long time already, so i thought i'd spruce up left-over chickpeas and leek soup with these. no idea how it comes out, still on the stove, sure is pretty tho against the pale green and yellow of soup.

XXX

portioned, marzipanned, decorated, and wrapped the christmas cake.

so we decided to share one of our home-made fruitcakes with our neighbors (we still have one soaking in brandy). charles made marzipan from scratch (very good).

we went to the east village to get a present for one of our neighbors' new baby, then to broadway panhandler and got those green and red bits for cake decoration (above photo). we weren't gonna get anything from there - one of those things where "oh it's just there, let's see what they have" and of course we walked out with the cake decorations, a spatula, and an all-clad roasting pan.

XXX

Sunday, December 15, 2013

early christmas present from the sims

we were just about to have our coq-au-vin (photo above, burning in brandy flames before going in the oven), after a recipe from the two fat ladies, when the sim family (our neighbors from upstairs) came over and gave us early christmas gifts - japanese desserts. shown on top is white chocolate mochi covered in green tea powder

XXX

Friday, December 13, 2013

eating mini christmas cake at 2:30am

© Joselito Briones
whoever said that patience is a virtue obviously doesn't know the smell of baking christmas cake. this is fresh from the oven, and is supposed to be drip-drowned in brandy for days before consumption, but i'm eating it now. the large, proper-sized version is still in the oven (charles and i started baking late at 10pm), hopefully that one will last until christmas.

XXX

Friday, April 26, 2013

late for the party

Man running on roof top with balloons in New York's Lower East Side via Stocksy United

this one's from a recent shoot for stocksy united. we have this thing going on where someone in the creative team (brianna?) suggests a trendy topic to shoot, and one of them was balloons. was a few weeks back but am only starting to get back my momentum in doing shoots, so - ah well, as they say, better late than fat.

in the photo is alek sandar

XXX

Monday, April 01, 2013

running theme

let's get literal, shall we? i thought i should have a series of photos with a running theme, and i was too lazy to think of one, so i just did one of friends running, everywhere we travelled. pictured above are marco and gau , the photo was somewhere in tuscany.